The Other Mrs Northman
by Genavieve Valarian
Summary: Sookie has enjoyed a month of peace after the events of Dead Reckoning and is hoping it will last.  Her hopes end when a woman shows up in front of her house early on a Sunday morning. Warning contains themes of polyamory. Slightly AU.
1. A Quiet Month

Sookie sat on the porch swing drinking her morning cup of coffee. Dermot waved at her as he made his way down the driveway to go to Shreveport. After he fixed up the attic to function as his new bedroom, Dermot had become listless again. Sookie had mentioned wanting to put in a carport then and Dermot had run with the idea. He had even started suggesting other improvements to the property he could work on after he finished the garage. Sookie was all for it. The farm house was slowly crumbling around her and it broke Sookie's heart to see her family home turning into a ruin, but she didn't have the money to hire a repair crew to renovate the entire house. Trading room and board for Dermot fixing up her beloved family home seemed like a great deal to Sookie, especially since Dermot seemed so gifted and enthusiastic about building things. So on sunny days he was building a full on two car garage attached to the side of the house and on rainy days he would stay in the house building furniture from fallen trees he found on the Stackhouse land. The carving he had done on his new dresser were so beautiful Sookie had suggested that he could sell pieces like that if he wanted. She had put him in touch with the people from Splendide and they had taken one look at what Dermot had made for his room and agreed to sell anything Dermot could carve. It gave Dermot money to buy any supplies he needed, although most of the tools he needed were sitting in the shed out back. Grandpa Stackhouse had loved woodworking and had at least one of almost every tool you could imagine. Dermot had just finished another piece and was on his way to drop it off at Splendide and then he was going to the Home Depot to get some more supplies for the garage. Sookie waved back to him until he turned onto Hummingbird Lane.

Sookie inhaled the delicious aroma rising from her steaming cup of coffee. This was her favorite time with a cup of coffee, when it was too hot to just drink down so she had to slowly take small sips between long periods of simply inhaling the blissful, rich smell. Sookie reveled in being completely alone on the property and completely let go of her shields, relaxing in a way she rarely was able to.

It had been a rare non-violent month in Sookie's life. No one had come looking for Sandra Pelt and Sookie was beginning to truly relax into the idea that the chaos the Pelts brought to her life was finally and completely over. Jannalyne had been keeping an ear out for any Were's looking for Sandra. She had even used Sookie's Friend of the Pack status to let her make some inquiries about who Sandra's remaining relatives or associates might be. Sookie was sure she was doing all this more to make sure no one was going to come after Jannalyne or Sam than to make sure no one was going to come after Sookie, but Sookie was grateful all the same. So far all Jannalyne was able to find out was that the Pelts were universally disliked, even by their own pack, and they had no relatives that anyone knew about. As a bonus Sandra was wanted for questioning about the death of her parents both by local police and the local packmaster. It seemed there were a lot of suspicious circumstances around their deaths.

Claude and the rest of the riffraff at Hooligan's had mostly stayed away. Bellonos stopped by every once in a while to speak to Dermot in hushed tones and sometimes to help Dermot bring home a felled tree that was too big for just one of them to carry. Sookie had made them leave it at the edge of the woods for Dermot to work on so it wouldn't kill the lawn by shading it for too long or take up the entire driveway. It had turned out that Victor had more self control than was previously believed or was just smarter than most vampires. Instead of getting blood from Cait himself or having one of the other vampires do it, Victor had kept Cait in an environmentally controlled environment with an air filtration system that prevented her sent from escaping, then he made one of his human staff draw blood from her. He had been intending to keep her as a permanent supply of fairy blood. Eric found her enclosure when he was searching Vampire's Kiss for the Kingdom's paperwork on de Castro's orders. Colton knew how to access her enclosure and directed Sookie on how to release her. Dermot and Sookie freed her during the day so their was no chance of vampires being around. She was incredibly anemic when they got to her and so weak they couldn't even get her to stand on her own. Dermot had to carry her out to Sookie's car. Sookie had dropped them off at Hooligan's and called Claude to make sure Cait would have the care she needed. Claude assured her he would call Dr. Ludwig. He actually thanked Sookie for rescuing "one of our females" and then tried to get her to let him move back into the farmhouse. Sookie wasn't interested in letting him come back to fuck with her life again and refused to listen to his pathetic attempt to get back in her good graces. She hadn't heard from him since.

Since their was no one left on Victor's side to claim he had been set up, Fillipe de Castro had accepted that Victor had attacked first and they had merely defended themselves. It had helped their case a great deal that the search of Victor's homes and businesses to obtain records for the kingdom revealed evidence that he had multiple plans to kill Eric and everyone associated with him. It had really helped when there was also evidence that Victor had been embezzling from the Kingdom, purposefully driving down profits (and therefore taxes) for vampire owned businesses by opening competing businesses with the money he embezzled, and had been working to amass power so that he could either seize Louisiana or just kill de Castro and take all his territories. de Castro actually issued an official statement commending Eric, Pam, Thalia, and Indiria for ridding the Kingdom of a traitor. As a reward for his loyal service, de Castro gave Eric all Victor's businesses in his area. Eric kept Vampire's Kiss open, but removed all images of Bubba from the property, rechristened it Fangtasia and added his throne to the new bar. He made it all sound very logical as to why he had moved the location of Fangtasia, the new location was better for business, it was larger, there was better parking, it had more office space, and everything was new and in good condition, while the old location was in need of some upgrades. All his reasoning sounded good but Sookie suspected the real reason was that it was closer to Bon Temps and therefor her.

Eric had been almost obsessively attentive toward Sookie for the last month. Sookie was convinced he was living at the new Fangtasia by how quickly he got to her after sunset every day. It was like he wouldn't be able to function if he didn't make absolutely certain that she had survived the day. If she was working that night he tried to stay at one of her tables watching her work but, after two nights, Sookie insisted that he was scaring people from her section and reducing her tips and demanded he leave. After that he would check on her then leave her to go work at Fangtasia until she finished her shift and then she would find him waiting for her at her car. He would stay with her till almost dawn on those nights even if she was so tired that he merely watched her sleep. There was more than once where she woke in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and discovered him staring at her as if he were trying to memorize every bit of her. He didn't even seem to notice if Dermot was in the house and seemed to feel no compulsion to approach him. To be safe Dermot had installed a very serious door at the top of the stairs. He said it had a sheet of silver in the middle of it and had put weather stripping around the edges so his scent wouldn't drift down to the lower floor. On nights she wasn't working, Eric blew off work all together to spend all his time with her. He would take her on magnificent dates, some lavish to the point where Sookie started objecting to the amount of money they must cost and others were so sweet and perfectly suited to Sookie's personality that Sookie had to fight back tears at how much Eric loved her.

After about a week of this attention, Pam came into Merlotte's and pleaded with Sookie to get Eric to pay more attention to business. Pam was frazzled trying to run the transition to the new Fangtasia on her own, plus she was still stricken with grief over Miriam's death. Eric had been completely neglecting his Sheriff's duties, so Pam, as his second, had been saddled with trying to run the area as well. Without Victor in charge of the area de Castro was spread even thinner than he had been before and was in desperate need of a regent for Louisiana and allies among other royals. In his current position he was weak and a takeover was extremely likely. Pam didn't outright say it but she gave Sookie enough significant looks for Sookie to understand that the marriage with Oklahoma was still a very real possibility.

Pam's visit did as she had hoped and Sookie insisted that Eric spend more time at Fangtasia tending to at least his Sheriff's duties. They had a huge fight about that. Eric refused to loose even a second of time with her and refused to discuss what was going on with the marriage to Oklahoma. This made Sookie even more nervous than Pam's veiled warning. Eventually Sookie insisted on a compromise that she would go to Fangtasia on nights she had off so he could be with her and work. She would sit in his office and read or sometimes just sleep on his couch, which he had replaced with a very comfortable futon a week after she started spending time in his office. Every once in a while she would go out into the club and point out all the undesirables to Pam (underage people who had got in past the bouncers, drug dealers, drainers, undercover cops). It worried Sookie a lot that Eric was putting her ahead of politics. She had always wanted someone to put her first but if Eric wasn't dealing with de Castro and the situation with Oklahoma they were all in danger. She was constantly trying to ignore the feeling that Eric was only being so attentive because he knew they didn't have much time left.

Sookie was just finishing up her coffee when she felt a consciousness enter into her range. She pulled up her shields it was likely just another truck headed over to Bill's. Odd that they're working on a Sunday. The work Dermot had been doing seemed to have inspired Bill to continue working on his house. He was even talking about having light tight shutters placed in the house for guests as well as sprucing up his hidey hole to be a little more comfortable for "anyone who needed to shelter there in a storm."

Sookie got up to head into the house and get ready for church. She had gotten back into the habit of attending church on Sundays again. Regular church attendance made Sookie feel like she was returning to the woman Gran raised her to be again. Reverend Joe had greeted her back with open arms and she had responded that she really wanted to get to church every Sunday from now on. Reverend Joe had told her that was good and that, "The soul needs a tune up every so often to keep it in tip top shape, just like her car, and once every seven days seems to be the right interval." She had even overheard a conversation between her minister and a recently returned veteran from Iraq that did a lot to set her mind at ease about her involvement in all the murders that had happened since she met Bill. Sookie was looking forward to a good day of church, lunch with Tara, J.B., and their beautiful new twins (it was her turn to bring the new family a casserole), and then a long talk with her Gran as she tidied up her grave.

Sookie was almost to the front door when she noticed that the brains she had sensed earlier weren't part of a crew doing construction at Bill's. Apparently they belonged to a sky blue Prius that was pulling into her driveway. There was a woman Sookie had never seen in the driver's seat. She looked to be about Sookie's age and had a similar figure, maybe a little taller and a little plumper but just as amply endowed where it counted. The woman had a tan to rival Sookie's but with the olive tones that betray a Mediterranean ancestry. Her eyes were a clear brown and her hair was long, straight, and a chestnut brown with natural red and blond highlights throughout. Behind her were twins, about four years old, tall for their ages with blond hair and skin a few shades lighter than their mother's. The girl had the same big, clear brown eyes as her mother and the boy had big blue eyes and a cleft chin. There was something very familiar about the look of the children to Sookie but she was sure she had never seen them before.

Assuming that the woman had gotten lost, Sookie turned from her front door and started down her porch steps to offer directions to wherever the woman was heading to. The woman parked the car right in front of Sookie's house and got out. Just as she was about to speak an urgent voice sounded from the back of the car.

"Mommy I have to go potty!"

"He's welcome to come in and use the bathroom," said Sookie.

"Thank you. Come on Leif. There's a potty inside you can use." Leif jumped out of the car and ran at the door. "Do you need any help?" his mother called after him.

"No! I'm a big boy I can do it myself," shouted Leif as he ran through the door Sookie had opened and ran to the bathroom she pointed at.

"Lilja, do you need to go to the potty, too?" the woman asked the little girl.

"No Mommy but can I get out, please?"

"Of course, but stay within the wards that surround the house."

"Okay Mommy." Lilja bounced out of the car and started exploring around the house with a doll in her arms.

"How do you know about the wards around the house? Who are you?" Sookie was starting to panic and was trying to reassure herself that this woman couldn't come within the wards if she meant any harm except Sookie wasn't exactly sure what kind of wards Bellenos had placed on the property or what exactly they were supposed to do. She made a mental note to ask Dermot about that.

"I can feel the wards. They're really very good. They won't let anyone who means you harm pass. I think they might seriously harm anyone who tried."

"Who are you?"

"I'm sorry; I should have started with that. I'm Brighid Northman. I believe we share a husband."


	2. A Day of Revelation

"I'm sorry. What did you say?" Sookie stared at the woman completely unable to make sense of what she had said.

"I said my name is Brighid Northman and I believe we share a husband. Perhaps it would be best if we sat down and I could explain?"

"Of course," Sookie motioned to the porch swing and then collapsed into it herself. Brighid took a seat next to her and waited for Sookie to extract herself from daze. Brighid was a little concerned that Sookie would go into shock so she was watching her closely.

"I'm all done Mommy," Leif came tearing out of the house.

"Did you wash your hands?"

"Yes."

"Did you flush the toilet?"

"Yes."

"Then shut the door and you may go play with your sister as long as you stay within the wards protecting the house."

"Okay Mommy." Leif ran off after his sister leaving the front door wide open for all the bugs to get in. Brighid sighed then closed the door herself and returned to her place on the porch swing.

"How can we share a husband?" Sookie had recovered some of her senses watching the complete normalcy of a mother and her child.

"Vampire and Fae marriages are both non-monogamous. Neither his people or ours will object to Eric being married to both of us unless one of us objects."

"But we could object?" It was bad enough that Sookie might lose Eric to Oklahoma but now she could lose him to this other wife.

"Yes, we could, but I won't. Plus from what I've heard about the situation it's not safe for you to object. Does it really matter to you anyway?"

"Of course it matters!"

"Why?"

"Because he's my boyfriend. We have a monogamous relationship. What you're suggesting might be fine for Supes but I'm human. We don't do that. It isn't right."

"No, you're not, yes, they do, and yes, it is."

"What?"

"You're not human, honey. You may have grown up thinking that you are human but you aren't, never have been. I can see right away that you're a fairy with a daemon trait. Even the bit of your human heritage that hasn't been taken over by your fairyness has the essential spark. You were never going to be human and you were never going to be able to live by human limitations, especially human limitations that even humans don't live by."

"What do you mean human limitations that even humans don't live by?"

"Have you seen the news lately? You can't go more than a month without seeing a politician outed for engaging in some sort of extramarital sexual activity. And those are just the people in the public eye who know that there is a good chance they'll be caught. Plus monogamy is only the standard in some cultures. There are whole human cultures that are alive and flourishing that would regard strict monogamy to be completely immoral."

"Well I'm a good Christian woman living in the United States of America and here that is just plain wrong."

"Members of the Fundamentalist Church of Laterday Saints live in the United States of America, consider themselves good Christians, and consider it completely immoral for a man to have fewer than three wives. But none of that is really important. You're a fairy not a human and fairy marriages do not contain the presumption of monogamy."

"I'm only an eighth fairy!"

"Maybe when you were born, but now I'd say you're closer to half."

"Half?"

"Yeah, half, like me."

"You're half fairy, but your ears are normal?"

"Yeah, I lucked out and got the passing ears. My Dad's a full fairy and my Mom's a witch so I'm just magic all around."

"And that's why you can sense the wards?"

"Yup."

"Mommy! I'm thirsty!" Leif came tearing around the corner of the house screaming his demands so they could be heard in the next parish over.

"Leif, we are right here, not on the other side of the forest. Please use a quieter tone and maybe use an actual request."

"Mommy, may I please have some blood?" Leif said in his most "I'm you're darling boy and you love me" manner.

"Of course. Let me get the bag out of the car. Thank you for asking so nicely." Brighid told Sookie that she'd be right back while dashing down to the car and pulling out a large diaper bag from the trunk. She handed Leif a red insulated sippy cup and pulled another one out for Lilja just as the little girl rounded the corner of the house asking if she could have a blood too. Brighid brought the diaper bag back to the porch swing with her.

"They drink blood?" Sookie asked.

"Of course, they're half vampire."

"But vampires can't have children."

"Well, not the old fashioned way, but with modern technology you can do anything."

"So, what? You used a sperm donor or something, but how does that make them half vampire?"

"Eric was the sperm donor. Male vampires will ejaculate with the exact same sperm that they would have when they died and then it regenerates just like a limb would. However, since the sperm is dead it doesn't swim and, therefore, can't swim to the egg and can't penetrate the egg even if the sperm did get in contact with it. It's called a lack of sperm motility. Some human men have the same thing. So you do an in vitro procedure where they inject one healthy looking sperm into each egg then viola you've got an embryo. After that it's just like any other in vitro procedure."

"So those are Eric's biological children drinking blood in my yard?"

"Yes." Sookie hadn't really needed Brighid to confirm that for her. Leif looked just like a little tan version of Eric and, except for her brown eyes, Liljia looked just like the daughter Sookie sometimes dreamed about having with Eric.

"Why didn't he tell me about any of this?"

"It was probably too painful and he thought the three of us died before he ever met you."

"Why would he think that? I would have thought he was blood bonded to you if you were carrying his children."

"We were blood bonded but I broke the bond so he would believe we had died and not come looking for us."

"Why?"

"Maybe I should just tell you the whole story from the beginning. That way we don't have to jump around so much."

"Okay. Do you want some sweet tea?" Sookie had suddenly realized that she was being a terrible hostess and her Gran would have been scandalized by her lack of hospitality.

"Yes, a sweet tea would be lovely. Perhaps we could move inside as well. I haven't quite gotten used to this Louisiana weather again."

"Oh, of course. I think I have some toys that my little cousin plays with when he was last over in the spare room for the kids."

"That would be lovely. I have some of their favorite toys in their bag as well so they won't get bored." Brighid called to the twins and they all went into the house. Sookie pulled out some old toys for the children and Brighid got them set up in a corner of the living room while Sookie got the sweet tea. Then they settled down to listen to Brighid's story.


	3. Brighid's Story

"To understand my story you must understand more about the Fae realm. The Fae are divided into four different clans, the Sky clan, the Water clan, the Earth clan, and the Fire clan. The Crown Prince or Princess from each of these clans along with the High Priestess form the ruling council of Fae. The Council controls everything concerning the Fae. They control our armies. They mete out our justice. They set our laws. They represent us to all other Supes and control how we interact with humans. To be a member of these families, even if you are not in the line of succession, is to have great power in Fae. It is also means you are a target for a lot of political backstabbing, literal backstabing. The royal families constantly fight among themselves to determine who shall have the Crown. The Fae constantly fight between clans over stupid nonsense trying to gain power over one another. They fight with other Supes to prove the superiority of the Fae. They fight within the clans to determine the superiority of one kind of Fae over another. These are not the kinds of childish bickering human politicians in this country engage in either. These are bloody, murderous battles that leave the majority of those involved in them dead. We Fae are not dying out because we cannot produce children. We are dying out because we insist on killing each other faster than we can reproduce.

"My grandfather is one of the younger sons of the Crown Prince of Fire clan and my grandmother is one of the younger daughters of the Crown Prince of the Earth clan. Their marriage was arranged as a peace treaty between the Fire clan and the Earth clan. They only had one child together, my father. Due to the fighting in Fairy, my father always felt torn between factions and was weary of the political manipulations that always cared the threat of bloodshed so he took refuge in the human world.

"Once in the human world my father set about making a life for himself. He met my mother, a very powerful witch who clearly possessed the essential spark, in a community garden. They quickly discovered that both their gardens were more magical than food oriented, unlike the majority of the sections of the garden. They fell in love, married, and had me. They founded what would best be described as a Supe hippy commune in the Santa Cruz mountains of California. To the outside world we looked just like any of the other lingering hippy communes in the area, but we consisted mostly of various Fae who had left Fairy, rare shifters and weres who didn't have enough of their kind to form a pack, a few part daemons, and the few humans that did enter our compound were witches like my mother and therefore hardly human at all.

"In many ways it was the ideal place for a Supe mutt like me to grow up. I was always surrounded by powerful adults who could protect me if needed. There were wards constantly in place around the property so that no one could harm me, humans would feel a compulsion to avoid the area, and no one could see anything strange happening on the property. I was free to be as magical as I wanted. I was homeschooled with other Supe kids in every possible Fae and witch skill and even a few daemon skills, as well as all the normal educational stuff. I had every possible advantage.

"When I was sixteen, in an effort to let me learn how to blend into human society, my parents let me go to a summer at college program at the LSU campus in Shreveport. I know, totally weird location to choose to spend my summer but I wanted to get far away from home and go somewhere I didn't know any Supes. I was going through the typical teenage rebellion phase. I had suddenly decided that it was completely unfair that my parents hadn't forced me to live a human life and gosh darn it I was going to be normal like everyone else. I know crazy idea. I didn't understand how good I had it or how awful it would be to act human all the time.

"Less than a week into the six week program some of the kids from my dorm hatched a plan to sneak out and go clubbing. Most of them had fake IDs. It was easy for me to convince them that I was really good with a computer and then I conjured up some fake IDs for those of us that didn't come prepared for illegally sneaking into clubs. Of course my conjured IDs were better than any of the forgeries the other kids arrived with so I wound up making all my spending money by conjuring a perfect ID for every kid in the program and several of the college kids who were there for summer school. The following Friday night we left the campus for the exciting world of Shreveport's nightlife.

"The club we chose was what would eventually turn into Fangtasia after the Great Revelation. Pam carded all of us and even though she could smell the magic on our cards she let us all in, although I could feel that we were being closely watched all night. It took me all of ten seconds to realize that there were an unnatural number of vampires in the bar. One of the first things I was taught as a child was how to dampen my scent so that I wouldn't be in danger of draining by vampire. I had been drilled until keeping my scent cloaked was as natural for me as breathing. That night was the first time I had understood why my parents had insisted on my mastery and constant use of that particular skill.

"I wanted to leave the club quickly and never return. I might be able to mask my scent but if I bled with that many vampires around it would cause a massacre. There was no way I could convince a group of teens to leave a club they had successfully gotten into without making a scene. At the very least, it would be noticeable if we didn't stay for a few drinks. By the time we finished our second round of drinks, the group had scattered to all parts of the club. Two girls were doing body shots at the bar. Four or five were on the dance floor with various partners. At least three were in dark corners making out with someone they had just met and I was fairly certain that two of our group were having sex in the bathroom. There was no way for me to round everyone up and get us all out of the club without being completely obvious, even if I did spell all of them into thinking that they wanted to go home. It was too obvious that everyone was really enjoying themselves and they were too scattered. I was a nervous wreck, sitting at the booth with everyone's purses and jackets, praying that my scent blocking kept working, chastising myself for not wearing any silver like my father had taught me to always do.

"I was on the verge of hyperventilating in a full blown panic attack, when Eric slid into the booth with me. Having a vampire sitting next to me didn't really help me calm down, but he didn't seem interested in attacking me so I knew my scent was completely repressed. Once he started talking to me, I forgot all about my panic and began feeling everything you would expect of a sixteen year old girl who was encountering full blown Eric Northman charm. He told me later that he was intrigued by my inability to be glamoured (I think we both know the man likes a challenge), my refusal to fall all over him even when he was trying his hardest and I was obviously attracted to him, and by that point he and Pam were almost certain that I was the one who conjured the IDs. He spent the rest of the night in that booth with me talking and trying to do more, which I consistently evaded. I think my refusal to yield that night only made him more determined. My group didn't leave until closing and Eric had actually managed to make me relax in a room full of vampires. He gave us all free entry passes and insisted we come back the next night. As we snuck back into our dorm, everyone congratulated me on landing such a catch.

"The group insisted that we go back the next night and that I come with them in the hope that I could land everyone free entry again. Nothing I did would dissuade them and my roommate finally threatened to kidnap me in my sleep if I didn't loosen up and go willingly. So I put on every piece of silver jewelry I owned, strapped silver daggers to my thighs, did my hair up with a pair hardwood sticks that could act as stakes, and insisted we go for Italian before clubbing so I could eat enough garlic to smell of it for days.

"When we got to the club, Pam was on door duty again and was visibly repulsed by me. I was masking my fairy scent but did nothing for the garlic that was coming off of me in waves. I was also wearing enough silver to function as a disco ball. Everything about me said that I knew exactly what owned the club and that I wanted no part of them. Of course this was exactly the wrong approach to take with Eric. I don't think he has ever met a challenge he didn't triumph over and he takes the idea of anyone turning down his advances as a personal challenge.

"Despite my glaring 'Vamps stay away' ensemble, Eric spent the whole nigh sitting in the booth next to me making conversation. We went on like that every weekend of the program. I was always coated in silver and garlic to maintain a strict no touching policy, even when I really wanted to. Eric was downright gentlemanly about getting to know me over the course of those six weeks. I wouldn't even tell him my last name, since it would have instantly identified me as not only Fairy but Fae royalty. Although, he told me later he glamoured every detail he could out of one of my friends the second night we came to the club. The night before the program ended and I was to fly back to California, he finally convinced me to give him my email address.

"We spent the next two years emailing each other every night. We both learned how to use instant messengers so we could have conversations like we used to at his club. Within a week he surprised me by confessing to knowing that I was a fairy and I confessed to knowing he was a vampire. I surprised him by telling him I was also a witch. We spent a lot of time talking about the logistics of having a relationship. He argued that I was only half fairy and he was a very old and controlled vampire so there wouldn't be any danger to me. I maintained that there was no way to be sure of that and it was too great a risk to take. Eventually Eric contacted Dr. Ludwig to calm my fears. She just told him he was full of crap, but she would look into a solution for us.

"I applied to LSU Shreveport and a few other schools nearby for college, as well as a variety of schools on the west coast and a few in the north east. I told Eric that, if Dr. Ludwig could find a way to let us safely be together, I would go to school nearby and we could try having a face to face relationship. If Dr. Ludwig told us it was impossible I would be happy to keep our email relationship going but I would be keeping a safe distance between us.

"It took Dr. Ludwig two months to find a way to vaccinate Eric against the worst effects of fairy blood. I'm still not sure if she actually found the way to do it or if Eric called every source he could get his hands on to find a solution himself. Regardless of how Dr. Ludwig figured it out, by the time I was receiving acceptance letters from colleges, Eric was receiving nightly vaccines against fairy blood. He had to be injected every night for a year and a day and just to be safe Dr. Ludwig would give him a booster every month.

"I started LSU Shreveport in the fall and Eric and I started dating. We were so in love. I couldn't bear the thought of being away from him for the entire summer so I attended summer school, just to have the excuse to stay. We moved in together at the end of that summer. I had told my parents everything about Eric, except his age (I did tell them he was older than me), what he did for a living (I had let them assume he had been in the summer college program with me and was a college student), and that he was a vampire.

"We bonded just after I moved into his house and pledged in front of Pam in the club exactly four years after we met. After the pledging, Eric insisted that he meet my parents. I put him off for as long as I could but by Christmas break my senior year my parents were flat out demanding to meet the man in my life.

"It was a complete disaster. I had always claimed that Eric was spending the holidays with his family and that year I had claimed to be spending Thanksgiving with Eric's family to avoid having to introduce Eric to my parents. My parents were thrilled to finally meet the man I seemed to be so serious about. We arrived together at first dark on Christmas day. It was bad enough that I showed up late for Christmas dinner but I simultaneously announced that I was married to a Vampire. My father tried to send Eric to his final death with the carving knife he'd been using. I think the only reason they both survived was that the wards on the property prevent anyone from harming another. After the attack, there was screaming and crying. My father said Eric would kill me if I didn't leave him. Someone accused him of keeping me around as a blood slave so that he would always have a source of fairy blood to pass around to his friends. Another person suggested he was just waiting for the next vampire summit where he would sell me or rent me to the highest bidder. Finally, my mother did what only a mother can and crushed my soul. She went on a lengthy tirade about how I was never going to have children and how I was an only child so she would never have grandbabies to spoil. I went to pieces like a gingerbread house in a preschool.

"Eric rightly decided then that was the time to cut and run. He hates it when I cry. We went back to the campground we were staying at in our light tight motor home. It took me a long time to calm down. I had tried really hard to convince myself that I was okay giving up having children to be with Eric, but it turned out I wasn't. I have always loved kids and have always wanted to be a mother. After I got to know Eric I wanted to have his kids and in a little corner of myself that I tried really hard to ignore I dreamed of having his babies. We spent a long time talking that night and eventually I passed out from the emotional upheaval of the day.

"Eric took my desire to have _his_ children as an honor and a challenge. He spent the rest of the night researching fertility treatments and consulting with Dr. Ludwig, much to her annoyance. By dawn he had an appointment set up for us to undergo fertility testing with Dr. Ludwig once we returned to Louisiana and several theories about how I might be able to have his children.

"We spent the week in Santa Cruz just like we had planned. I spent the first couple of days meeting my family during the day. On the second day they brought Desmond, my godfather and an expert in vampire law, to explain how to divorce Eric and break our blood bond. After that I refused to see any of them without Eric present and I had Dr. Ludwig fax them a letter explaining that Eric was able to control himself around fairies and exactly how she had vaccinated him. By the time we left for Louisiana my family had grudgingly accepted our marriage to the point they were only offering to kill Eric if I ever changed my mind.

"Back home Eric caught up on Area business and I prepared for my final semester of college. I was still reeling from the debacle with my family. Eric caught me crying over diaper commercials more than once. It only made him more determined to find a way to father children. We met with Dr. Ludwig and discovered that the solution was already in existence. We harvested my eggs and created six healthy embryos. We implanted the first set during my next cycle, but they didn't take. We tried again the following month. Two weeks later I graduated from college and had a positive pregnancy test.

"Eric and I were ecstatic about the pregnancy. We spent most of our free time reading parenting books and creating the perfect nursery to receive our perfect babies. For a little over a month we were everything you could expect a pregnant couple to be. Then the politics of our situation caught up with us.

"There's a whole lot of racism amongst Supes. Everyone thinks their better than everybody else. Amongst the Fae it's gotten so bad we even demand segregation amongst ourselves. My grandparents' marriage, which was meant to create peace between two clans, was being treated as a sacrilege. The extermination of all mixed Fae was ramping up as a serious political cause. Word got out that not only was a mixed Fae princess married to a vampire, but was actually carrying the vampire's children.

"Eric and I went to bed after having assembled the crib and co-sleeper in the nursery. Our last words before falling to rest were about how my stomach was just starting to firm up and bulge with the pregnancy, which seemed to indicate that I would deliver closer to the six months of a Fae pregnancy than the nine of a human pregnancy. Eric was so excited to watch me swell with his children. The way he talked I think he was hoping I'd get too big to fit through the door.

"The dawn pulled Eric under as he spooned me with his arms wrapped protectively over my womb. I was quickly following him into slumber when Neave and Lochlan ripped open the door to our room. Before I could even inhale to scream, they had me bound and gagged and were stuffing me into a steamer trunk.

"I'm still not sure where they took me. I know it was in the woods next to a river but I couldn't even tell you if it was in this realm or not. Neave and Lochlan were always nothing more than instruments of torture for hire, but they were relentless in their pursuit of their targets and they never left a target alive. I quickly did some magic to protect my babies while I was locked in the steamer trunk. While they were torturing me, Neave and Lochlan mocked me with the details of their mission. They had been hired to torture me into miscarrying so that my babies could be tossed amongst the crowd as I was publicly executed for being a disgusting half-breed."


	4. Forgotten Sunday

Sookie was quietly crying by the end of Brighid's tale. There was so much about Brighid's life that was similar to Sookie's and so much that explained Eric's behavior. Sookie felt like she needed to rethink every interaction she had with Eric. Suddenly, she had questions about how much of his horror and grief in the hospital had been for what Neave and Lochlan had done to her and how much was for the wife he thought he lost the same way. How much of his love for Sookie was because of Sookie and how much was because she reminded him of Brighid? When he was protecting Sookie was it because he loved her or because he was trying to make up for not protecting Brighid?

"No, no. Don't think that. Eric isn't one to love by halves or risk himself out of regret. I'm sure he loves you just as deeply as he ever loved me," Brighid attempted to comfort Sookie.

"How did you know what I was thinking?"

"We share a godfather or a sponsor or whatever Desmond is to us. I've tried to explain that telepathy isn't actually a gift and that clothes or a college fund would be way more appropriate but he just doesn't seem to get it. He always gets horribly offended that I don't understand the honor of being gifted with a rare daemon trait. I would stay out of your head, but I'm a little worried that you're about to go into shock."

Sookie took several deep breaths to calm herself. Going into shock and passing out seemed like a terrible idea. She wanted to keep her wits around Brighid and needed to learn everything she could. So far, in just over two hours, Brighid had willingly told Sookie more about the Fae than any of her relatives and been more forthright about Eric's life than he ever had. Sookie wanted to take full advantage of having a willing source of information about the crazy Supe societies she had been thrust into.

"Why didn't Eric ever tell me any of this? Or Pam? Someone should have mentioned you!" Sookie exclaimed.

"My best guess is that it was just too painful. From what I've been told, you met Eric less than a month after I was taken. I don't think he ever gave himself the chance to truly mourn our loss. Plus Eric was never big on sharing. Getting him to tell me simple things like when he would be home from work or what upcoming vampire events we needed to attend required FBI level interrogation tactics. I get the feeling he hasn't changed that much."

"Getting information from him, especially important information, is like getting blood from a stone."

Brighid laughed at that. "It's good to know he's still the same man. As for Pam and everyone else, I've been told Eric banned all mention of me in his territory on pain of final death after my father told him I'd gone to the Summerland. Apparently he was fairly crazy with grief and prone to violent outbursts."

"How did you get away from Neave and Lochlan? Where have you been for the past four years? Why did you break the blood bond?" Brighid's story was finally starting to sort itself out in Sookie's head and Sookie realized there was still a lot of ground to cover.

"I have a feeling Eric is going to want answers to all those questions as well and I'd rather just tell that tale once. The past few years haven't been the happiest. Except of course for having the twins, but even that has been bitter sweet since I couldn't share it with Eric. Would you be willing to wait for tonight so that I can tell you both at the same time?"

"Of course," Sookie whispered as she realized that all too soon she would see Eric reunited with the woman he loved so much he found a way to impregnate her and the children born of that love.

"Sookie, I'm not here to take anything from you. I love Eric and I hope that he still loves me, but I know he must love you too. Supes are terrible gossips and I've been hearing a great deal about how devoted to you he is. The only way you'll lose Eric is if you demand a divorce or we don't deal with this Oklahoma bitch."

"You really think he's going to choose me over you and his children?"

"I don't plan on making him choose at all. Fae and Vampire marriages don't contain a presumption of monogamy. No one in either community will expect him to choose between us and I don't either."

"I don't think I can live like that." Sookie was working herself into one of her fits of poorly planned, assumption based, drastic action that would be better if discussed with the relevant parties ahead of time.

"Sookie, I know what I've been saying goes against everything you were raised with. I'm talking about huge life altering changes for you, but, from what I understand, if you divorce Eric you will likely be shipped off to Fillipe de Castro by morning. Take a month and really think about your options. Talk to Eric about what he wants. Give me a chance to show you that being co-wives could be a great benefit. Get to know the children. You could have children of your own."

"I don't want to pass on my disability."

"Telepathy is only really a disability when you live exclusively in the human world. You don't live in that world any longer and neither will your children."

Sookie was starting to work herself up into a fit. As much as she always said she didn't want to pass on telepathy and as much as she told herself that her new world was too dangerous for children, there was a part of her that deeply longed for them. There was a part of her that dreamed at night of having a little girl with Eric who looked just like a blue eyed Lilja.

The phone rang and startled Sookie out of hyperventilating. It was Tara, wondering why Sookie wasn't at church that morning and asking if she was still bringing over Sunday dinner. At just the sigh from Sookie, Tara knew to let her off the hook. Tara may not know all the details of the craziness Supes brought into Sookie's life, but she did know what her oldest friend sounded like when she was dealing with too much. Tara told Sookie to just skip this week. People had been dropping off meals every day since the twins were born and the fridge was full of enough leftovers to supply a church picnic. Sookie really wished she had been able to keep her Sunday plan, but given the circumstances she was grateful to have one less responsibility.

As Sookie hung up the phone, Dermot came down the long driveway with a truck full of construction supplies. Sookie realized she had a crock pot full of gumbo and her Gran's pecan pie that needed to be eaten up. She offered lunch to Brighid and the twins, realizing it was one and they were likely all hungry. Brighid politely declined explaining she was vegetarian. ("I know. It's weird for the wife of a vampire to be vegetarian, but I figure I'm helping to balance his karma.") Brighid also wanted to give Sookie some time alone to deal with all the changes that morning had brought on her life, which Sookie was very grateful for. Brighid was packing up the kids to go find a restaurant for lunch and then a park for them to run around in until they came back to meet Eric, when Dermot came into the house.

"Niece, I have returned. Are you not going to your friends for lunch?" asks Dermot as he entered the living room from the kitchen. Dermot stoped short when he saw Brighid and her children standing in the middle of the room.

"Uncle Dermot this is Brighid, Leif, and Lilja," Sookie started to make introductions.

"It's good to see you again, Dermot. It's been too long," said Brighid.

"It was thought that you were dead," Dermot said harshly.

"It was the only way I could keep Neave and Lochlan from coming for me," Brighid replied calmly.

"Are you here to take my niece's husband from her? Does he know you live?" Dermot asked.

"No, of course not. She has brought him comfort and joy and love when I could not. She loves him and I would not take that from her or from him. But, now that the threat of Neave and Lochlan is gone, I want my children to know their father and I want my husband back if he will still have me. I came to Sookie first so that she will have time to think before seeing Eric."

"You intend to let both marriages stand?" Dermot asks for clarification.

"That is my desire, but it will be up to Sookie and Eric if that comes to pass. It seems Sookie has been kept unfortunately ignorant about both our ways and the ways of our husband's people. Eric and I will be having a talk about that and then we will fill her in on the ways of vampires. I think it may be easier for her if she gets her education into the ways of the Fae from you," rebukes Brighid.

"Of course. I am her kin. I will teach her the ways of our people, if that is what she desires."

Sookie was shocked. For the last four years Sookie had been trying to figure out the Supe world and in one morning Brighid had already told Sookie more than her own family had told her about her Fae family, declared that she will get Eric, of all people, to tell Sookie all about vampires, and gotten Dermot to say he will teach Sookie about the Fae. Sookie didn't believe for a second that she would get the whole story from Eric or Dermot, but she had a strong feeling that Brighid would fill in anything they leave out.

"I need to get the kids off to lunch. Dermot, I hope we will be able to catch up soon. I'm hoping to be around a lot so Sookie and I can get to know each other. Sookie, I've put a lot at your feet today. I'm sorry that I've dumped all this on you. Please, promise me that you will take some time to think through everything you've learned today before you make any decisions?" Brighid pleads.

"I won't do anything today," says Sookie.

"Good," Brighid smiles brightly at Sookie. "I'm going to suggest that you stay at this house for the rest of the day and near Dermot. I'm not sure if anyone has told you, but the Fae tend to be very hot tempered and prone to rash action when isolated from our kind. Being around Dermot and the Fae magic in this house will help you think rationally about what you have learned."

"I was only planning on going to church, Tara's, and Gran's grave today anyway."

"Is she buried in the cemetery on the other side of the driveway?" asks Brighid.

"Yes, all the Stackhouse's graves are there."

"You could still go to your Gran's grave. I think that's close enough to the house and Dermot for you to remain calm. I'm sure it will help you sort everything out to talk to her."

"Yeah, I always feel better after I talk to Gran. Sometimes it feels like she can answer me."

"Maybe you're starting to manifest your powers. Fairies are able to talk to the dead at some sacred places in Fairy and some witches are able to talk to the dead as well. Perhaps that's a good place to start your training. You may be able to help her briefly manifest her spirit in this realm so you can chat."

"I could actually talk to my Gran?"

"Maybe, for witches it takes a lot of concentration and for the Fae it only works at the sacred places and only with deceased Fae. But you are Fae and human, so the two elements could work together to let you become a medium."

Sookie was near tears at the idea that she could speak with Gran again. There was so much to say. Why didn't she ever tell Sookie about Fintan? Or Mr. Cataladies? What would she say about how far Sookie has fallen from the Christian values she was raised with? How would Gran suggest Sookie deal with Eric and Brighid? Then there were the little things that Sookie just missed. She had found herself struggling to remember some of the folksy sayings Gran was so fond of, to hear them again would be wonderful. There were a few of Gran's recipes that Sookie couldn't find and couldn't remember. One of Gran's rosebushes was struggling and Sookie knew that Gran had a special solution that she would mix up for it, but Sookie had no idea what it was.

"Sookie, I will be happy to help you explore becoming a medium. Right now, I need to get the kids off to lunch," says Brighid softly.

"Of course you do. Are you coming back?" Sookie asks.

"I'd like to come back just before dark so that we can talk to Eric together. I don't think he will believe I'm alive if he doesn't see me and I don't think you should have to pretend this morning didn't happen."

"I don't think I could ever pretend this morning didn't happen."

"You do look kinda shell shocked."

"Guess it's good that my outsides match my insides."

"I'm the same way. I often thought the bond was superfluous, since my face is as easy to read as a billboard."

"Except it is nice to have a heads up about what is going on with Eric."

"Oh, he has his tells. They're just very, very subtle and hard to catch if you don't know what you're looking for. I'll help you figure them out." Brighid winked at Sookie.

Sookie giggled at that. Maybe having a co-conspirator against Eric wouldn't be so bad.

"There's one more thing before I go. I heard you like to read, so I brought you a couple of books that might help you see our plural marriage from a different perspective." Brighid reached into her hobo bag, pulled out two books, and handed them to Sookie.

"_Sex at Dawn_ and _Opening Up_, what are they about?" Sookie asks.

"_Sex at Dawn_ is about the evolutionary biology of human sexuality and what is natural human sexual behavior versus social constructs. It really challenges the preconception of monogamy being natural, although it doesn't offer any opinion on how humans should behave. I know it sounds like a boring textbook, but it is written in a really accessible way. Plus, the science they cite is fascinating.

"_Opening Up_ is a book about the various ways people arrange non-monogamous or polyamorous relationships. I like it because it isn't demanding an end to monogamy like some books on ethical non-monogamy. This book acknowledges that some people are just monogamous or only want a few close partners. Some books on the subject act like if you aren't being militantly slutty then you're a victim of Puritanical sexual hang ups and need help finding your true self. I find this book to just be more respectful of the diversity of individual preferences."

"So you want me to read these books so I'll think it's okay for Eric to have two wives?" asks Sookie.

"No. I want you to read these books so that you have another human perspective to see the situation from. I understand that you have been raised in human culture and still think of yourself as human. Asking you to make a major relationship decision that simultaneously requires you to cast off your human identity is cruel. I just want you to know that good, moral human beings have these kinds of relationships so that your decision about our marriage and your acceptance of who you are get to be two separate processes."

Sookie takes a deep breath, "Okay."

"Good," Brighid smiles. "We'll see you in a few hours. Try to get some rest. I have a feeling Eric is going to need a lot of talking down tonight. Come on kids. Let's go get lunch."

The kids race out of the house and jump into the Prius, like they've been promised a trip to Disneyworld. Sookie and Brighid say a quick goodbye and Sookie stands on the porch, watching Brighid drive away.


End file.
